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Keep bile and feces out of our meat and poultry.

I have a tremendous amount of respect from my Congressional leaders. When I cast my vote for my representative in Congress, I do so with the expectation that they will do their best to support and create laws with the well-being of me and my community at the core of any new bill and address any current legislation in the same way. Some, no many, may think I’m naïve. So be it. Those are my expectations. Laws, regardless of their nature, should create value for the people who are impacted by them.

A current law that seeks to protect us from eating bile and feces of chicken and turkeys is under threat of being done away with. This is unthinkable. No wonder there is a growing number of people becoming vegetarian. Daily Kos reports about this and has a petition we can sign. Read the story below, sign the petition and then pass it on to everyone you know.

In an attempt to keep the American people from eating shit (literally), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) currently inspects all chicken and turkey carcasses for things like bruises, bile and feces before they are sent to further processing.

However, the UDSA is now considering a pilot program that would eliminate that inspection and allow private poultry processing plants to do whatever they want. The USDA is holding a public commenting period on this proposed change through April 26.

Why is the USDA considering this change? To cut government jobs and allow private companies to make millions:

In an article from early March, Food Safety News dug up a study [PDF] showing the program is projected to save FSIS up to $95 million over three years, and to give a $250 million boost to poultry companies.

And the result of this will be Americans eating shit, literally. When a privatization program like this was tried out in the 1990s, the crap that ended up in the food was gag-worthy:

“The inspection category that had the highest error rate was for dressing defects such as feathers, lungs, oil glands, trachea, and bile still on the carcass. The average error rate for this category in the chicken slaughter facilities was 64 percent and 87 percent in turkey slaughter facilities.”